All by myself

It's been a while now since I've had significant chunks of time without Aussie visitors and I'm realising now how much this has spoilt me and how much my perspective changes depending on who I spend my time with. It has honestly been amazing having so many people stay with me or cross my path here in Uganda. I've made new friends, strengthened relationships and shared experiences that have challenged and changed me.

But at the end of the day, when I wave goodbye, I go back home and so do they.

This means that the frustrations I share with my Aussie friends, while they might understand and sympathise, fade into the back of their consciousness becoming a memory of their time in Africa, an amusing anecdote to share with friends who want to know what it's like in this culture. But for me these frustrations remain part of my daily life.

I've noticed it most recently when I've found something funny but can't laugh with my Ugandan friends because it's not funny to a Ugandan. And I think of my Australian friends who have visited here and who would be cracking up with me and I wish that for that moment I could share it.

I realised the other day that this never used to happen. Before I had the opportunity of shared frustrations, they were just mine and I dealt with them. I've discovered a side of me that now craves to share those frustrations all the time. Like I can't go back to those innocent days where it was all in my head and I could convince myself that I was making a big deal out of nothing.

This is one side affect that I had not foreseen.

It's come as a bit of a shock, this discontent, this desire that things be different. After all I am well aware that I am in a different culture and that I will not find everything as it is at home in Australia. I'm just surprised that my African 'culture shock' is happening more than two years into my time here.

I'm not sure that I had realised I felt like this until just now. Self revelation through blogging! No doubt in a couple of weeks I’ll adjust back to life as normal and in the meantime I’ll try to remember to rejoice and be thankful in all things.

Thanks for being a listening ear.

Blessings

bron